Device for dispensing apertured plates



Feb. 28, 1961 Q BLE 7 2,973,108

DEVICE FOR DISPENSING APERTURED PLATES Filed June 14, 1949 EUR/ARE LZEIBLE' INVENTOR BY /Q $6M.

ATTORNEYS DEVICE FOR DISPENSING APER'IURED PLATES Edward 0. Gable,Rochester, N."Y., assignor by nesne assignments, to the United States ofAmerica as represented by the Secretary of the Navy Filed June 14, 1949,Ser. No. 98,948

1 Claim. (Cl. 21'4-8) This invention relates to apparatus formechanically feeding individual pieces from a stack of pieces,especially pieces Whose orientation is critical.

It is frequently desirable when assembling discs, insulators, spacers,Washers, battery plates, or similar thin component parts into a unitconsisting of an orderly pile of such elements that the pieces be fed atpredetermined intervals and properly oriented. Batteries, armatures, andrectifiers are often built up of alternate layers of such piecesassembled on a mandrel, shaft, spindle or other support. If "thecomponent parts are properly oriented and are fed in the proper sequencesuch an operation can be entirely automatic. 'If three or more differenttypes of such pieces a're 'to be assembled manually on a spindle, theoperation can be speeded up considerably by providing manual assembly ofonly two types of component parts and feeding the remaining typesautomatically at desired intervals. If such semi-automatic operation isadopted, a Worker has only one type of piece to manipulate with eachhand, and both saving in time and increase in efficiency will result.

It is an object of this invention to provide a mechanism forautomatically dispensing individual pieces at predetermined intervalsfrom a stack of pieces.

Another object of this invention is to provide apparatus to mechanicallyfeed thin and fragile pieces free from difliculties frequently.encountered in the past in that manual assembly of fragile parts isoften difiicult to perform, time consuming, and wasteful of materialbecause of wrinkling and crushing of the parts.

The invention consists essentially of a particular mechanism for holdinga stack of apertured plates and for feeding these plates one at a timeonto a mandrel with the plates properly oriented and in proper sequence.

Other objects and advantages of this invention and the novel mechanicaldetails thereof will be apparent from the following specification andthe accompanying drawing wherein:

Fig. 1 is a view in perspective of one embodiment of the inventionwherein preoriented plates are automatically dispensed onto a mandreland individual spacers are automatically fed to the right and left handsof an operator for manual insertion onto the mandrel;

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view on line 2-2 of Fig. l; and

Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view on line 33 of Fig. 1.

In carrying the invention into effect in a preferred embodiment thereofas shown in Fig. 1, two types of parts are automatically fed atpredetermined intervals within easy grasp of the right and left hands ofan operator for manual assembly onto a mandrel and a third type of partis automatically fed in proper orientation and at desired intervals ontothe mandrel. A stack of disc-shaped battery plates 11 is mounted on avertical rod 12 having a splineway 13 cut along the exterior peripheryparallel to the axis of the rod 12. The plates 11 are blanked with ribs14 which operate in the splineway 13 to keep tent "O the plates 11 inproper orientation on the rod 12. A

fiat horizontal slide '15 mounted for reciprocation transversely of theaxis of the rod 12 is formed with a variable-width slot 16 through whichthe rod 12 extends. The slot 16 is elongated in the direction ofreciprocation and has a radius at its narrower end smaller than theradius of the plates 11 (best shown in Fig. 3) to prevent the passage of:the latter through the narrower portion of the slot 16 when the rod 12approaches the narrower end. The radius at the opposite end of the slot16 is greater than the radius of the plates 11 to permit their passagewhen the stack 16 is in register with the Wider portion of the :slot'16. The slide 15supports the stack 10 of plates 11 during the greaterportion of its travel and prevents movement of the .plates 11 down thevertical rod 12 except when the slide 15 moves to bring the wider end ofthe slot 16 near the rod 12 and thus bring the stack :10 into registrywith the wider .portion of the slot 16.

-A ilat "bifurcated separating plate :19 having "a separation betweenthe lfin gers v20 at'the bifurcated and narrower than the outsi'dediameter of the plates l'l but wider than the diameter of the rod 12 isconveniently :constructed of material thinner thanthe thicknessofasingle :plate 11. The Ifingers :20 at the bifurcated end of theseparating plate 19 are provided with relatively sharp edges and extend"atjleast p'artIy -over the wider end of the elongated :slot 1 6 but notover the narrower end. The separating plate 19 at the end opposite thebifurcation is attached to the top of the slide 15 with the sharpfingers 20 approximately at the height of one plate 11 above the slide15. The slide 15 supports the stack 10 during the greater portion of itstravel. As the slide 15 travels to move the wider end of the slot 16adjacent the rod 12, the sharp fingers 20 of the separating plate 19disengage a single plate 11 from the stack 1% and afford a partialsupport for the remainder of the stack. When the wider portion of theslot 16 is moved into registry with the stack 10 the fingers 2i afiordthe sole support for the remainder of the stack 16, at which time thedisengaged plate 11 is fed by gravity down the rod 12 onto a verticalmandrel 21. The mandrel 21 is of substantially the same diameter as therod 12 and is positioned in coaxial relation with and a short distancebelow the rod 12. A separation is provided between the mandrel 21 andthe rod 12 to allow manual insertion of spacers 23 and 24 onto themandrel 21 between successive plates 11. The mandrel 21 is oriented sothat a splineway 22 provided in the exterior periphery thereof is inalignment with the splineway 13 in the rod 12. The rib 14 of the plates11 operating in the splineways 13 and 22 will maintain the plates 11properly oriented as they are fed by gravity down the rod 12 and ontothe mandrel 21 after disengagement from the remainder of the stack 10.The plates 11 are thus loaded onto the mandrel 21 in proper orientation,and the interval at which the plates are fed can be regulated by varyingthe speed of reciprocation of the slide 15. The number of plates 11 tobe disengaged from the stack 1% during each cycle of reciprocation ofthe slide 15 can be varied by regulating the height of the fingers 2 3of the separator plate 19 above the slide 15.

The apparatus illustrated in the preferred embodiment of the inventionshown in Fig. 1 has been constructed to automatically feed individualannular spacers 23 and 24 onto platforms 27 and 28 for manual insertionof said spacers 23 and 24 onto the mandrel 21 between successive plates11. As the spacers 23 and 24 are not oriented in the final batteryassembly, they are dispensed individually by the apparatus at pointsremote from the operator to be gravity-fed down inclines 25 and 26 ontoplatforms 27 and 28 which are within easy reach of the operator. Stacks29 and 30 of spacers 23 and 24 are manually loaded onto vertical rods 31and 32 respectively,

' 11 are fed through slot 16 in slide 15 are described above.

The intervals at which the spacers 23 and 24 are fed can be regulated byvarying the speed of reciprocation of the slides 35 and 36. In theassembling of the battery unit as depicted in Fig. 1, a single spacer 23and a single spacer 24- are inserted between successive plates 11, andit is convenient to operate the three slides 15, 35, and 36 in unisonwith a sufiicient interval between cycles to allow manual insertion ofthe spacers 23 and 24 onto the mandrel 21.

In Fig. 2 a single plate 11 is shown passing through the Wider portionof the slot 16 after it has been disengaged from the remainder of thestack which is supported by the fingers 20 of the separating plate 19.After the slide has traveled far enough to remove the fingers of theseparating plate 19 from beneath the stack 10, the slide 15 affords thesole support for the stack 10 during the remainder of the cycle.

It will be recognized that the apparatus specifically described hereinfor carrying out the invention is susceptible of considerablemodification and rearrangement without departing from the spirit of theinvention, the scope of which is pointed out in the appended claim.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters 5 tures, comprisingsupport members constituting right and left stations convenient to theright and left hands of an operator, means for feeding circularapertured members one at a time to said right and said left handstations, a noncircular mandrel rod between the two stations with across section smaller than the circular and noncircular apertures androtation-preventively fitting the noncircular aperatures, a fixedvertical rod in axial alignment with and spaced from the mandrel rodsufiicient to allow hand insertion of circular apertured members on thetop of the mandrel rod and still close enough to allow properly orientednoncircular apertured members from the fixed rod to fall still sooriented onto said mandrel rod, said fixed rod having a noncircularcross section rotation-preventively fitting the noncircular aperturesoriented in alignment with the cross section of said mandrel rod, areciprocating horizontal slide having an elongated slot wider at one endthan the outside diam eter of said noncircular apertured members and atthe other end narrower than said outside diameter but wider than saidfixed rod, said fixed rod extending vertically through said slot in saidslide, and means movable with said slide and spaced therefrom forseparating a predetermined number of noncircular apertured members andfor supporting the remainder of said noncircular apertured members whensaid fixed rod is in the wider portion of said slot.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,359,575 Norman et a1. Oct. 3, 1944

